Headline history [Hear's my story]

"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange, 1936
Courtesy Library of Congress
Headline History
How did ordinary people experience the extraordinary events of the twentieth century? To find out, we
showed seniors at the Greensboro Senior Center famous photographs of big events like the Great
Depression, World War II, and the Vietnam War. The seniors shared with us their thoughts, feelings, and
experiences of growing up and living through these events that continue to affect us today.
The Depression
Following victory in World War I, the United States enjoyed an economic boom in the 1920s. Prosperity
came to an abrupt halt by the 1930s. Banks closed their doors, people lost their homes and jobs, and the
horizon looked bleak for the foreseeable future. Americans attempted to make ends meet by any means
possible­whether
this meant searching endlessly for jobs, looking to the government for assistance, or
turning to Mother Nature for sustenance. People who lived during this period have varying memories of just
how they made it through.
Luther Manning grew up on a farm in Dillon, South Carolina during
the Depression and remembered:
“It would have been better to grow up in the city because the farm work
was harder. I did saw­mill
work and, as I forestated, it was harder.”
Raised in central North Carolina, Maxine Hayes relates how her
family made it through the Depression:
“That was during the Hoover days, and it was kind of hard on people.
We lived on a farm and we raised our food; chickens, hogs, and cow[s]
and so that was one thing that helped us through the Depression.”
"Back then they didn't have recipes. They just used a little teaspoon of
that, a little teaspoon or tablespoon of that. They made their own
recipe. They didn't write out; they figured out in their head and mind."
­Maggie
Townsend
World War II
World War II started in 1939, when German forces invaded Poland, and ended in 1945. The United States
got involved after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. We think of war as happening on the
front lines, but, as the seniors' memories show, World War II affected every aspect of ordinary people's
lives, both at home and abroad.
"It was very hard for me and my husband because my husband had witnessed people being killed in World
War II. There was an incident where 3,500 people were slaughtered on a bridge, and they were just thrown
into this river called Drina. It was horrible for him that the beginning of the war [in Bosnia] brought those
other memories back."
­Safija
Kukic, translated by Aida Mahic
Flag raising at Iwo Jima, Courtesy National Archives
March on Washington, 1963. Courtesy National Archives
“ They taught [us] in school we should have things on us that
identified our name, address and our home. And if there
were any bombs that you knew how to roll under the seats
of the school.”
­Florence
Clark
The U.S. Military was segregated, remaining so until 1948,
when President Truman issued an Executive Order
desegregating the forces.
“At that time the black soldiers and the white soldiers didn’t
even bunk together. They wouldn’t mingle because the camp
where I used to work, Camp Button, they had one side
where the whites live and the other side for the black.
[There weren’t] many black soldiers at that time on the
battlefield; there was a few, but they was mostly doing the
work.”
­Maxine
Hayes
Civil Rights Era
In the twentieth century, African Americans, Native
Americans, and women pushed for equal rights, equal
jobs, and equal treatment. In the South, where
segregation had a firm hold, some civil rights
demonstrations turned violent, even resulting in death;
others, such as the March on Washington in August of
1963, remained peaceful.
"Being a black person at that time was when they could kill
you if you had a march. They put dogs on you [and] water on
you."
­Florence
Clark
Ola Hughes faced discrimination while growing up in the
North:
"There were no protests there. But if you were in line
shopping they going to wait on you [a white person] before they wait on me [an African American]. Like I
could be standing there for ten minutes and you just walk up and, well, that's the way they handled it. But they
couldn't stop me from going into the places."
Luther Manning recalls his experience with segregation:
“I recall going home at one time and I stopped to get some food and the lady came with the food and just
handed it to me out the window, not inviting me in the place where the food was being prepared. But I didn’t
accept it because I didn’t think it was supposed to [have] been done that way. That’s how I thought about
that...I'm hoping that you teach [your children] that it's wrong to hate each other, black or white. We should
The Beatles, Courtesy Time Inc.
Maxine Hayes, Rockaway Beach New York
treat one another as we should be treated, which is good."
The Rock 'N' Roll Era
In the 1950s and '60s, a new kind of music shook, rattled, and rolled America. Elvis and the Beatles had a
sound that seemed to speak directly to young people. Youngsters today might call these the Oldies, but
they had a profound cultural effect on people in the '60s. As the seniors' recollections show, there is still
debate about whether it was a good effect or bad.
"I never did care for rock 'n' roll. I'm a Protestant Christian
[of] Baptist denomination, so we don't do any rock 'n' roll."
­Luther
Manning
"The Beatles were big and ugly when I saw them and heard
them. Long hair, hippie style, dance music."
­Mary
Powers
"I remember the Beatles.
I used to listen to them:
[singing], 'Yeah, Yeah,
Yeah.'"
­Maxine
Hayes
"Ooo, Beatles! My
children loved the Beatles. I thought [the Beatles] were young people who
loved life and made good music. I don't listen to music much anymore. My
sister got killed, my brother­in­law
got killed, my son got killed, so I am
very sad. I listened to music when my son was listening to music, but I am
not in the spirits to return home to music. I can't listen to music right now."
­Safija
Kukic, translated by Aida Muhic
Space Exploration
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy vowed to send an astronaut to the moon by the end of the decade.
The Soviet Union had taken an early lead in the "space race" by launching Sputnik, the first man­made
object to orbit the earth, in 1957. On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk
on the surface of the moon. People had varying reactions to these events, from sheer amazement to total
disbelief.
"I was home, I guess, when I first heard about it. I heard about they was going to send a man, somebody to the
moon, I wasn't so sure! Then when I saw it, walking on there, well, they did it."
­Maxine
Hayes
“They were talking about it everywhere; you’d pick up a newspaper and it’d be on the front page of the
newspaper.”
­Mary
Powers
U.S. Soldier in Vietnam, Courtesy National Archives
“I never thought that people can get that far, to walk on the moon, so I
don’t know whether they do or not. They say they do, but I don’t know
whether they do or not.” ­Luther
Manning
"One thing I remember is that every time they sent something up in
space we had terrible storms, rain, afterwards. Everybody was saying,
'Well they're going up there messing with God's territory and we're
paying for it.' And it rained and rained­had
terrible storms." ­Ola
Hughes
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War
was one of the
longest military
engagements for the
United States and
one of the most
protested. When
soldiers came home,
they came home
different. Many were
diagnosed with Post
Traumatic Stress
Disorder, and others
were dramatically
changed by the war.
As the seniors attest,
the war took a toll
both on the soldiers
and on the loved ones to whom they returned.
"They came back not like they went. A lot of them had to go to mental hospitals. It was always depressing."
­Malinda
Whitesides
“My two first cousins, they was never the same. One was an alcoholic and he would shoot holes in the wall; he
said green men was coming out of the sockets. He had flashbacks from being over there. Messed ’em up, both
cousins.”
­Mary
Powers
The war likewise was traumatic for the Vietnamese and Montagnards, many of whom were U.S. allies.
“I was in charge of the secret services. I cannot tell you about my job; I wouldn’t feel safe sharing...In 1975,
when South Vietnam was losing the war, I was put in jail for 12 years. Once a month we’d have a bowl of rice,
the rest of our daily meal was dry corn and water with salt. A lot of people died of hunger.”
­Bhung
Hmok, translated by Snow Rahlan
West Germans look into East Germany through a hole
in the Berlin Wall. Courtesy remote.org.
The 1990s
In 1989 the world watched as the Berlin Wall fell, making
possible the reunification of East and West Germany. This
momentous event heralded the closure of the Cold War,
which ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Many seniors expressed feelings of surprise and great joy
that the Berlin Wall finally fell. Soon after, however, tragedy
struck in the former Yugoslavia when Serbians invaded the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzogovina in 1992. Americans
heard about the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims, while
Safjia Kukic suffered through the war in person. The United
States negotiated peace agreements between the Serbians
and Bosnians in 1995. Safia and her family immigrated to
the United States afterwards.
"I remember how happy I was for the people over there."
­Mary
Powers
"When the war started in 1992 [my town] was surrounded by Chetniks [Serbians]. [My family and I were]
taken to [the] Drina River to be executed. One of my students, a Chetnik, recognized me and said, 'Oh,
professor why should I kill you? I'm not going to kill you.' And that's how I was saved."
­Safija
Kukic, translated by Aida Mahic
The website contains student­created
resources. The University Libraries makes no claim as to the
accuracy of the views or information presented herein.

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The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5305 -- http://library.uncg.edu/

Sponsor

North Carolina Humanities Council;Greensboro Historical Museum;Senior Resources of Greensboro;The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Notes

In February 2008, eight Museum Studies graduate students from the University of North Carolina Greensboro started chatting with seniors at the Greensboro Senior Center. Over the course of several months, this project—a collaboration between UNCG Public History Department and Senior Resources of Guilford—led the students to conduct 24 interviews focusing on three topics: food, technology, and famous historical events of their lieftimes.

Full text

"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange, 1936
Courtesy Library of Congress
Headline History
How did ordinary people experience the extraordinary events of the twentieth century? To find out, we
showed seniors at the Greensboro Senior Center famous photographs of big events like the Great
Depression, World War II, and the Vietnam War. The seniors shared with us their thoughts, feelings, and
experiences of growing up and living through these events that continue to affect us today.
The Depression
Following victory in World War I, the United States enjoyed an economic boom in the 1920s. Prosperity
came to an abrupt halt by the 1930s. Banks closed their doors, people lost their homes and jobs, and the
horizon looked bleak for the foreseeable future. Americans attempted to make ends meet by any means
possible­whether
this meant searching endlessly for jobs, looking to the government for assistance, or
turning to Mother Nature for sustenance. People who lived during this period have varying memories of just
how they made it through.
Luther Manning grew up on a farm in Dillon, South Carolina during
the Depression and remembered:
“It would have been better to grow up in the city because the farm work
was harder. I did saw­mill
work and, as I forestated, it was harder.”
Raised in central North Carolina, Maxine Hayes relates how her
family made it through the Depression:
“That was during the Hoover days, and it was kind of hard on people.
We lived on a farm and we raised our food; chickens, hogs, and cow[s]
and so that was one thing that helped us through the Depression.”
"Back then they didn't have recipes. They just used a little teaspoon of
that, a little teaspoon or tablespoon of that. They made their own
recipe. They didn't write out; they figured out in their head and mind."
­Maggie
Townsend
World War II
World War II started in 1939, when German forces invaded Poland, and ended in 1945. The United States
got involved after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. We think of war as happening on the
front lines, but, as the seniors' memories show, World War II affected every aspect of ordinary people's
lives, both at home and abroad.
"It was very hard for me and my husband because my husband had witnessed people being killed in World
War II. There was an incident where 3,500 people were slaughtered on a bridge, and they were just thrown
into this river called Drina. It was horrible for him that the beginning of the war [in Bosnia] brought those
other memories back."
­Safija
Kukic, translated by Aida Mahic
Flag raising at Iwo Jima, Courtesy National Archives
March on Washington, 1963. Courtesy National Archives
“ They taught [us] in school we should have things on us that
identified our name, address and our home. And if there
were any bombs that you knew how to roll under the seats
of the school.”
­Florence
Clark
The U.S. Military was segregated, remaining so until 1948,
when President Truman issued an Executive Order
desegregating the forces.
“At that time the black soldiers and the white soldiers didn’t
even bunk together. They wouldn’t mingle because the camp
where I used to work, Camp Button, they had one side
where the whites live and the other side for the black.
[There weren’t] many black soldiers at that time on the
battlefield; there was a few, but they was mostly doing the
work.”
­Maxine
Hayes
Civil Rights Era
In the twentieth century, African Americans, Native
Americans, and women pushed for equal rights, equal
jobs, and equal treatment. In the South, where
segregation had a firm hold, some civil rights
demonstrations turned violent, even resulting in death;
others, such as the March on Washington in August of
1963, remained peaceful.
"Being a black person at that time was when they could kill
you if you had a march. They put dogs on you [and] water on
you."
­Florence
Clark
Ola Hughes faced discrimination while growing up in the
North:
"There were no protests there. But if you were in line
shopping they going to wait on you [a white person] before they wait on me [an African American]. Like I
could be standing there for ten minutes and you just walk up and, well, that's the way they handled it. But they
couldn't stop me from going into the places."
Luther Manning recalls his experience with segregation:
“I recall going home at one time and I stopped to get some food and the lady came with the food and just
handed it to me out the window, not inviting me in the place where the food was being prepared. But I didn’t
accept it because I didn’t think it was supposed to [have] been done that way. That’s how I thought about
that...I'm hoping that you teach [your children] that it's wrong to hate each other, black or white. We should
The Beatles, Courtesy Time Inc.
Maxine Hayes, Rockaway Beach New York
treat one another as we should be treated, which is good."
The Rock 'N' Roll Era
In the 1950s and '60s, a new kind of music shook, rattled, and rolled America. Elvis and the Beatles had a
sound that seemed to speak directly to young people. Youngsters today might call these the Oldies, but
they had a profound cultural effect on people in the '60s. As the seniors' recollections show, there is still
debate about whether it was a good effect or bad.
"I never did care for rock 'n' roll. I'm a Protestant Christian
[of] Baptist denomination, so we don't do any rock 'n' roll."
­Luther
Manning
"The Beatles were big and ugly when I saw them and heard
them. Long hair, hippie style, dance music."
­Mary
Powers
"I remember the Beatles.
I used to listen to them:
[singing], 'Yeah, Yeah,
Yeah.'"
­Maxine
Hayes
"Ooo, Beatles! My
children loved the Beatles. I thought [the Beatles] were young people who
loved life and made good music. I don't listen to music much anymore. My
sister got killed, my brother­in­law
got killed, my son got killed, so I am
very sad. I listened to music when my son was listening to music, but I am
not in the spirits to return home to music. I can't listen to music right now."
­Safija
Kukic, translated by Aida Muhic
Space Exploration
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy vowed to send an astronaut to the moon by the end of the decade.
The Soviet Union had taken an early lead in the "space race" by launching Sputnik, the first man­made
object to orbit the earth, in 1957. On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk
on the surface of the moon. People had varying reactions to these events, from sheer amazement to total
disbelief.
"I was home, I guess, when I first heard about it. I heard about they was going to send a man, somebody to the
moon, I wasn't so sure! Then when I saw it, walking on there, well, they did it."
­Maxine
Hayes
“They were talking about it everywhere; you’d pick up a newspaper and it’d be on the front page of the
newspaper.”
­Mary
Powers
U.S. Soldier in Vietnam, Courtesy National Archives
“I never thought that people can get that far, to walk on the moon, so I
don’t know whether they do or not. They say they do, but I don’t know
whether they do or not.” ­Luther
Manning
"One thing I remember is that every time they sent something up in
space we had terrible storms, rain, afterwards. Everybody was saying,
'Well they're going up there messing with God's territory and we're
paying for it.' And it rained and rained­had
terrible storms." ­Ola
Hughes
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War
was one of the
longest military
engagements for the
United States and
one of the most
protested. When
soldiers came home,
they came home
different. Many were
diagnosed with Post
Traumatic Stress
Disorder, and others
were dramatically
changed by the war.
As the seniors attest,
the war took a toll
both on the soldiers
and on the loved ones to whom they returned.
"They came back not like they went. A lot of them had to go to mental hospitals. It was always depressing."
­Malinda
Whitesides
“My two first cousins, they was never the same. One was an alcoholic and he would shoot holes in the wall; he
said green men was coming out of the sockets. He had flashbacks from being over there. Messed ’em up, both
cousins.”
­Mary
Powers
The war likewise was traumatic for the Vietnamese and Montagnards, many of whom were U.S. allies.
“I was in charge of the secret services. I cannot tell you about my job; I wouldn’t feel safe sharing...In 1975,
when South Vietnam was losing the war, I was put in jail for 12 years. Once a month we’d have a bowl of rice,
the rest of our daily meal was dry corn and water with salt. A lot of people died of hunger.”
­Bhung
Hmok, translated by Snow Rahlan
West Germans look into East Germany through a hole
in the Berlin Wall. Courtesy remote.org.
The 1990s
In 1989 the world watched as the Berlin Wall fell, making
possible the reunification of East and West Germany. This
momentous event heralded the closure of the Cold War,
which ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Many seniors expressed feelings of surprise and great joy
that the Berlin Wall finally fell. Soon after, however, tragedy
struck in the former Yugoslavia when Serbians invaded the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzogovina in 1992. Americans
heard about the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims, while
Safjia Kukic suffered through the war in person. The United
States negotiated peace agreements between the Serbians
and Bosnians in 1995. Safia and her family immigrated to
the United States afterwards.
"I remember how happy I was for the people over there."
­Mary
Powers
"When the war started in 1992 [my town] was surrounded by Chetniks [Serbians]. [My family and I were]
taken to [the] Drina River to be executed. One of my students, a Chetnik, recognized me and said, 'Oh,
professor why should I kill you? I'm not going to kill you.' And that's how I was saved."
­Safija
Kukic, translated by Aida Mahic
The website contains student­created
resources. The University Libraries makes no claim as to the
accuracy of the views or information presented herein.